Verbal fluency tasks: influence of age, gender, and education and normative data for the Spanish native adult population.

Abstract

Objective: Phonological and semantic verbal fluency (VF) tasks are frequently used to assess language and executive functions in both clinical and research settings. F, A, and S are the most commonly used letters in phonological tasks across languages and cultures. Unfortunately, the lack of norms for the native Spanish population for these letters, and for certain semantic categories such as "proper names," may lead to misinterpretation of scores due to demographic differences. The aim of the present study was to provide normative data for F, A, and S and for "proper names," "animals," and "fruits and vegetables" for the native Spanish population. Method: 257 healthy subjects took part in the study (ages: 17-100 years, 3-20 years of education). Correlation, multiple regression, and t-tests were used to select the most appropriate variables for stratification. Results: Education was the best predictor of performance in all tasks, followed by age. Given that t-test results showed no differences related to gender, with the only exception of the semantic category "animals," this variable was not considered for stratification. Consequently, the data were stratified in two education levels (<13, ≥13 years of education) and in two age levels (<60, ≥60) within the low-educational level group. Mean, standard deviation, and percentile scores for each group are provided. Conclusions: The present norms provide a reference for clinicians assessing VF. This data may also facilitate comparisons with other normative studies in cross-cultural and cross-linguistic research.